The only reason he didn't beat his students was because he wanted to stay on good terms with their parents so they'd continue inviting him over for dinner. That's pretty crappy.
shareThe character was never supposed to be the nicest man on the block and he was pretty self-centered looking out to marry Katrina more for financial gain.
"HOPSCOTCH!"
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Haha yeah. Also, everytime he'd think about how much he loved Katrina it'd lead to thoughts about getting rich.
I am Jack's signature.
I love the line about Katrina's father. "The old goat can't take it with him and when he cuts out, that's when I cut in!"
sharePure cinematic GOLD
shareI find it interesting that Washington Irving was one of the first writers of shory stories, America's first true literary talent -- yet his tales invert what you'd expect in a story. Ichabod is not much of a hero, being cowardly, scrawny, and self-centered; Brom Bones is brash and also self-centered, but not that much of a villain (although as a shy bookish kid I certainly sided with Ichabod); Katrina is hardly a heroine, using charm and sex to get what she wants -- no Disney princess/heroine of today would act like her.
A lot of Irving's works are ambivalent -- I can never tell if he likes the people of the Kaatskills or if he's being sarcastic when he describes them, their lives, and adventures.
I must disagree about Irving's works being ambivalent. Many of his stories were taken from German folk tales, including "Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle". He set them in the Catskills because he was very committed to America establishing its own literature. (While America was still a new nation, most bestsellers were British works--there were no copyright laws, so printing was cheap, and printers were afraid to ignore establish British authors for unknown American authors who might not sell many copies.)
It's an admirable thing that Irving did by setting stories in our new country in order to help generate "American" literature, and, as he spent so much time living in that area, if follows that he only had the best of intentions in setting his stories there.